MUSKOGEE, Okla. — More than 4,000 students walked through the doors of Muskogee Public Schools for the first time this school year.
“Brand new school year it’s always fun,” said Superintendent Dr. Jarod Mendenhall.
With decades of education under his belt, the start of the new school year is always an exciting time for Mendenhall, Superintendent of Muskogee Public Schools.
2 News Anchor Naomi Keitt talked with him about a variety of issues heading into the new school year.
WHAT’S NEW:
The district is moving its Early Childhood Center to a new location. Grant Foreman will house the ECC. More than 250 four-year-olds will have a new building to call their school home.
“The building itself is a little bigger so we can take more students,” said Dr. Mendenhall.
The classrooms are ready. New playground equipment sits out back and new murals adorn the hallways. It’s making the new space welcoming for the youngest Roughers.
Also, every student in the district will get free breakfast and lunch for the 2024-2025 school year.
SAFETY/SECURITY:
The district is making sure students are protected when they walk through their schools’ doors.
“Safety and security is our number one priority,” said Dr. Mendenhall. “It has to be.”
Dr. Mendenhall said they’ve used bond money to make sure their campuses are secure with these measures:
- Keyless Entries
- Secure Vestibules
- Fencing
- Security Officers
“That’s really my number one priority is making sure that when they drop their child off every day, they expect to have their child back in the same condition,” said Dr. Mendenhall.
STAFF SHORTAGES:
The district is still looking for bus drivers to start the school year.
“We do have a harder time in our support positions finding people to cover those,” said Dr. Mendenhall.
Dr. Mendenhall said they’re fully staffed when it comes to teaching positions for the 2024-2025 school year.
“There’s a lot of things and a lot of pieces that go to that, but I would say the biggest thing is making sure that we create a culture where people want to be there and want to stay there and want to teach,” said Dr. Mendenhall. “We don’t have a whole lot of people leaving our school district. We’re doing a better job retaining the staff that we have making sure they’re not only happy but have a good culture to teach in every single day.”
BIBLES IN CLASSROOM:
“I’m going to follow the law,” said Dr. Mendenhall. “I’m going to follow what our standards say and that is that we’re going to use the Bible as a resource but we are not going to provide a bible in every single classroom from the 5th grade through the 12th grade.”
He said the district’s goal is to continue to see improvement in the state standards at their schools.
“We’re going to follow the state standards and the academic standards that have already been vetted, been voted on by our board, by the state board so that’s what we’ll be doing here in Muskogee,” said Dr. Mendenhall.
ATTENDANCE:
Dr. Mendenhall says the district has been tackling attendance issues. Last year, the district had an 88% attendance rate. Going into this school year, they’re at a rate of 93%.
“Our attendance rate went up a bunch last year,” said Dr. Mendenhall. “We focused on it. We worked on it.”
Ultimately the goal is a 95% attendance rate. Dr. Mendenhall said learning happens in the classroom and students will be successful if they’re present.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE:
Dr. Mendenhall said the district is also seeing how artificial intelligence could work in the classroom.
“My thought process is always to lean into something like that and to utilize it to our advantage,” said Dr. Mendenhall. “We’ve got to learn how to use it and we’ve got to teach our students how to use it.”
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